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Saturday, June 14, 2008

FedConUSA - The Disaster in Dallas - Part II

The morning began early, at 3:30 a.m. for us avid sci-fi con adventurers! It was truly an exciting morning, not only was I excited that I was going to my first non-trek convention, but I was going to meet members from the Star Trek Forum, run by Alec Peters! I was worried we would be late and miss Garret Wang, who was scheduled to appear at 9:15 a.m. We got to the hotel and there was a 30 minute-long line to get tickets. We conspicuously noticed there were not a lot of people roaming around, but it was early. As we stood in line with some fans from Arkansas we heard that the schedule had been changed and that Anthony Montgomery and other Battle Star Galatica actors were not coming.

We ventured to the ‘Ferengi Market’ aka the Dealers room to browse around. This too was a bit sparse as there were only about 12-15 dealers in total. We realized that John Billingsly and Bonita Friedency were suppose to be on stage, so we headed to the ‘Main Bridge,’ to find John on stage and the crowd asking questions. He was absolutely fabulous! And Bonita was super great as she bounced around the room giving the microphone to inquisitive fans! It seemed like it was going to be great and very personal. I was hearing stories all around about how the stars partied the night before in the hotel lobby with the fans! Then it all came to a screeching halt when the master of ceremonies, Richard Anderson announced the Con was cancelled! The fans were shocked, amazed and terribly disappointed. All of a sudden the crowd was flooding Anderson with questions about refunds and demanding to know why, what happened and how could this be? Then John Billingsly grabbed the microphone and stood in the audience and demanded that the hosts give the fans the answers they wanted and said “let’s get someone in here that knows the answers about these things.’ Other Star Trek actors, Garret Wang, Connor Trinnear, J.G. Hertzler, Robert O’Reilly and Menina Fortunato all retired to the autograph room and signed autographs and took pictures with the fans!! Robert O’Reilly and J.G. Hertzler were both mid-way through their Klingon make-up when they got the announcement of the cancelation and they went on with the show and came down and took pics with the fans and even sang some Klingon Songs of Glory!!!

So, in essence, the actors saved the day!! Had it not been for them, the Con would have been more of a disaster than it was! For me, the best part was getting to meet some of the wonderful people on the forum!! While this convention was suppose to be an equivalent of the FedCon in Germany, it was to say the least a pitiful attempt and whether FedCon was not a part of it or not, shame on them for lending out the trusted name, for in the U.S. the name is now MUD!!